The Death of Truth
Merriam-Webster definition of Truth is where we need to begin. You won’t find many word definitions that are this opposite between the dictionary and the Bible.
TRUTH – (noun) ((PERSON, place, THING or IDEA)) So, from whichever one you use to define TRUTH, will make all the difference in the world.
The dictionary’s definition of TRUTH – (Now listen carefully) “A STATEMENT or IDEA that is true or ACCEPTED as true”.
So what if the definition of truth is NOT widely accepted (by people) as true? Does that make it untrue? This definition seems to imply (By the worlds standards) truth can change and adapt? Can truth “evolve?” By definition, the dictionary says YES.
And so we look into….the death, of truth.
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We live in a world where diametrically opposed truths can and do coexist.
What’s true for you may not be true for me. No one can know truth for sure. If you say something isn’t true you are labeled intolerant.
If we don’t have a standard for truth, we can all just start adjusting it to fit our lives. To justify our guilt. To make us feel more tolerant.
With no standard anchor on TRUTH, we are all going off course.
Walk into a store full of clocks and watches. They’re all close but not exactly in sync with what time it is. Watches don’t have a standard like our computers, cell phones and GPS devices do. Those devices are constantly linked electronically …to an anchor.
Atomic clocks ensure we don’t vary off course even one second per 30 million years. They’re our anchor of standard time. Without that anchor we incrementally veer off course…hopelessly losing time.
Society is no different. If societal truth is not anchored in an absolute truth, it is ever changing to deal with our shifting belief systems in our different cultures. Culture changes, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.
Let’s simply take the last 50 years as an example.
One cultural change FOR THE BETTER was the civil rights movement was raging in the 1960’s. We were in a dark time where African Americans weren’t even allowed to use the same drinking fountains as white people. They couldn’t even use the same toilet as our culture deemed them as unequal.
In just 20 short years in the 1980’s we, as a society, went from that segregation to one that if you even spoke in a racist tone (and I don’t condone racism) but if you did…you would lose EVERYTHING. Your career, your life, everything.
Culture has changed. Does truth change with it?
Culturally you could smoke ON AIRPLANES 30 years ago. IN A PRESSURIZED TUBE OF CIRCULATED OXYGEN AT 40,000 FEET.
You could smoke in theatres, hospitals, grocery stores, you name it. Culture has changed in just 30 years. Has truth changed with it?
Let’s talk about homosexuality. Now I have your attention.
As a culture in 30 years we have gone from homosexuality being hushed about on most TV shows and movies and music to today, where anyone that even speaks their opinion against it is shut down, it’s getting there. You lose your career, your life. Even if it’s a loving opinion.
A national article that came out this week that talks about an executive that was only ACCUSED of an anti-gay remark that was immediately fired on the spot. He was screaming that he never said those things and that many of his friends are gay, they didn’t even wait around to see what was true and what wasn’t.
My soapbox: Most (not a blanket statement) of the gay/lesbian proponents are screaming equality! They want the right to be able to say whatever they want, even if it’s against Christianity. I’M FINE WITH THAT. I WELCOME THAT! The problem is at the same time they’re trying to shut us down, as Christians, from saying what we believe IN LOVE! In doing so those who are screaming for TOLERANCE are becoming the most INTOLERANT.
The Bible teaches homosexuality is a sin. It’s not the worst sin, it’s a sin. We all have sin. Lots of it. LOTS OF IT. No one here can point their finger at a homosexual and NOT point their own finger right back at themselves.
Do many Christians get this all wrong, treating homosexuals badly thumping them with scripture, sadly, YES. On the flip side, do many homosexuals demand rights for themselves while shutting down our rights to call it a sin? Absolutely.
Go get my sermon on CD at the bookstore, this is not a sermon on homosexuality, it’s only an example.
Are we, as Christians just supposed to become “tolerant” of it all?
Tolerance is the word these days.
The problem is, the definition of tolerance has changed. That’s the problem when things are always changing and nothing is constant! It used to mean, “accept that lots of people have different views, some of which are wrong” to now agreeing that all views are true. If you don’t believe all views are true you are labeled INTOLLERANT.
I’m called intolerant because I think I’m right on a certain matter? WHAT? Yet they think they’re right too!!?? So when I think I’m right, I’m intolerant (because of my Biblical views) but when they think they’re right, they’re just RIGHT.
A stunning pole recently taken shows 62% of Christians today don’t believe in an absolute truth.
Kyle, what does the Bible say about truth?
Well I’m glad you asked.
You have many versus I’ve provided on your outlines that talk about truth in the Bible. In John 17:17 Jesus said in a prayer, “Your WORD is truth”. The word of God. The Bible is truth. This comes from The Son of God, not society. Why should we believe Him?
Because of what He said in John 14:6…Jesus says I am the way, the TRUTH and the life. No one can come to the Father except through ME.”
The Bible is TRUTH. Jesus is TRUTH. God is TRUTH. TRUTH has an absolute giver of truth. Truth has a standard. Truth is not shifting and changing to match culture and society. We can’t change TRUTH but the Bible says truth can change us!
The psalmist says in Psalm 86:11 “teach me to walk in your TRUTH, unite my heart to fear your name!”
Notice it doesn’t say, “let me walk in your truth oh Lord, that I may mold it any way I wish to make everyone happy and feel good.”
John 10:35 in the King James Version says “scripture cannot be BROKEN.” So if you’re looking for a way to make Biblical truths adapt with the enlightened times we live, forget it.
We have only 2 choices. The Word of God IN IT’S entirety is truth, unchanging, unbroken…OR it is not and we’re left with the worlds, EVER changing truth. Take it all or none of it. BUT KYLE – somewhere in the Old Testament is says things like “Don’t eat bacon with Maple syrup while getting a tattoo on a Wednesday before noon”!!!!
GUYS – Don’t be ignorant. Learn to study your Bible before you make statements like this. That was a cultural thing FROM GOD dealing with Israel, NOT US today, JESUS replaced all that. STOP dipping in and out of the scripture as you see fit. God is not pleased with that.
Don’t shoot me I’m just the messenger here. After all we’re all called by God to be His messengers, NOT His editors.
1 Peter 1:23 says Gods truth lives and abides AS IS, forever.
Don’t fool yourselves into thinking our culture is enlightened and we’ve outgrown God’s antiquated rules and commands. None of this is new to God at all.
Paul encountered a culture of very intelligent, enlightened people in Romans 1:21-22. These highly intelligent people were looking for truth in places other than the scriptures and teachings of Jesus.
“Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became FOOLS”
Abandon a Biblical definition of truth and unrighteousness is the inescapable result.
It’s been that way for thousands of years.
Pause
Jesus said a lot of important things. Have you ever wondered if He would save the best for last? We all know what He said on the cross in His dying breaths, He talked about forgiving us, He talked about finishing what He had been sent here for…but do you know what the LAST recorded, meaningful, intimate, personal conversation Jesus had was?
Crowds thundered outside with the chants, “Crucify Him!” as Jesus stood, safely inside with the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. Looking at one another.
John 18:36-38
Pilate is clearly agitated he got thrown in the middle of this Jewish squabble. His sarcasm and short answers reveal his irritation.
Pilate just wanted this thing figured out and to away.
Pilate asked Jesus if He was really a king, like the people suggested. Jesus clearly said He was, but not of this world. Pilate says THEN YOU ARE A KING and Jesus responds, yes, but He has come to testify to the TRUTH. He even goes as far as to say EVERYONE WHO TESTIFIES TO THE TRUTH LISTENS TO ME.
Jesus is telling Pilate something. Pilate isn’t listening. He flippantly retorts, WHAT is truth. And walks outside to the crowd to tell them he finds no wrong in this man.
Pilate didn’t care about Jesus’s innocence. He cared about His Kingship. He wanted to know if Jesus was a threat to him.
When Jesus and His words become a threat to us or our society or our way of thinking or our culture, we walk out on him, same as Pilate.
We become only interested in asking questions and tearing things apart, not in getting answers (even if we don’t like the answers). If we don’t like the answers then they become intolerant.
And this, is where we are today.
There was NO WAY he wanted that answer. When truth doesn’t make us feel good or make us happy, we simply change it. We walk out on it. We justify it. We mold it to fit our lives, our morals. We have no compass. We have no sun to navigate. We have no anchor.
Pause
A noun is a person, place, thing or idea.
Truth is a noun. Which of those options you go will determines your compass. It sets your watch to either YOUR time or to the atomic clocks time.
If TRUTH is a PERSON, the Bible is correct. As it states JESUS CHRIST alone, is true truth.
If TRUTH is a PLACE, it has no truth giving power anyway.
If TRUTH is a THING, the Bible is also correct, the word of God, scripture is TRUTH. We can accurately use if forever as unchanging and accurate truth. Morally, spiritually, culturally.
If TRUTH is an IDEA, then it is forever changing. Ideas change. Ideas become antiquated. Ideas get enlightened and evolve. If you think TRUTH is an idea, you are open to everyone’s idea being right.
If everyone’s idea is right then there can be no wrong idea.
It is on this doorstep of thinking that truth has died.
Friends, the time is now. Don’t be fooled by culture and society. Don’t back down from Biblical truth. When you speak Biblical truth IN LOVE you can change the world. Stay sharp.
I am the TRUTH Jesus says. Eternal. Unchanging. Loving. Full of Forgiveness.
Be God’s messenger, NOT God’s editor.
Most of all, don’t back down. It’s not worth it. Don’t give in to the lie that when you think you’re right as a Christian that you’re intolerant.
They think they’re right too. The difference we have an anchor with our truth. We have the blue prints…and the architect.
It’s time to show that love and take it to the world.
PRAYER
